RF Basics

Marco Zennaro and Carlo Fonda - ICTP-ARPL

RF Basics
RF stands for Radio Frequency, but it often used in the sense of anything related with EM signals. The sine wave is the basic example of a signal that can be generated, transmitted and received with RF equipment. It may be characterized by: Frequency Amplitude

RF Basics
Frequency: the number of times a signal goes through a complete up and down cycle in one second of time. It is measured in Hertz. Amplitude: the difference between the maximum and the minimum value during one cycle. It is measured in Volts, and it is related with the strength, or power, of the signal.

RF Basics

Frequency: the number of times a signal goes through a complete up and down cycle in one second of time. 1

Hz

Amplitude: the difference between the maximum and the minimum value during one cycle. 2 V

RF Basics
We use the Scientic Notation that uses the power of ten to multiply the values.

milli (m) micro() kilo(k) mega(M) giga(G)

-3 10 -6 10 3 10 6 10 9 10

1 mV 1 V 1 kHz 1 MHz 1 GHz

RF Basics
Frequency Band: the standard name of a specic range of frequencies. HF: High Frequency, 3 MHz to 30 MHz VHF: Very High Frequency, 30 MHz to 300 MHz UHF: Ultra High Frequency, 300 MHz to 3 GHz SHF: Super High Frequency, 3 GHz to 30 GHz EHF: Extra High Frequency, 30 GHz to 300 GHz

RF Basics
Bandwidth: width of the range of frequencies that a signal occupies on a given transmission medium. It is the difference between the highest-frequency signal component and the lowest-frequency signal component. Voice transmission: 3 kHz FM radio broadcast: 200 kHz Analog TV broadcast: 6 MHz

RF Basics
Wavelength: the distance a radio wave will travel during one cycle.

=c/f
is the wavelength, in meters c is the speed of light, 299793 m/s f is the frequency, in Hz

RF Basics
Frequency 900 MHz 2.4 GHz 5.0 GHZ Wavelength 0.33 m 0.125 m 0.06 m

RF Basics
Power: in the RF world, the power is commonly used to quantify a signal, instead of the amplitude. Power is expressed in Watts. For low-frequency signals, the power is given by

P=EI
For high-frequency signals with no reactance, by the root-mean-square values. For high-frequency signals with reactance, RF power is a vector, 2-D, quantity.

RF Basics
Decibel: the decibel (abbreviated as dB) is a logarithmic expression of the ratio between the power, voltage, or current of two signals. Signal one, with a power of P1 Watts Signal two, with a power of P2 Watts

P =10log (P /P )
dB 10 2 1

RF Basics
If the load impedance is constant, decibels can be calculated in terms of effective voltage. Signal one, with an RMS voltage of V1 across a load Signal two, with an RMS voltage of V2 across a load

V =20log (V /V )
dB 10 2 1

RF Basics
When the decibel gure is positive, the second signal is stronger than the rst one, and the power ratio is called gain. When the decibel gure is negative, the second signal is weaker than the rst one, and the power ratio is called loss. In ampliers the gain, also called the amplication factor, in often expressed in decibels.

RF Basics
+ 3 dB +10 dB -3 dB -10 dB two times bigger ten times bigger one half one tenth

RF Basics
To express power using decibels we need a specic power to be assumed as a reference. In the RF world the common standard is to refer powers to 1 mW (0.001 Watts). Such power ratio, expressed in decibels, is called dBm.

P =10log (P /1mW)
dBm 10 watts

100 W 1 mW 10 mW 100 mW 1W 10 W 100 W

RF Basics

The advantage of using decibels instead of Watts to express the power of a signal along an RF chain is The advantage of using decibels instead of Watts to express the power that instead an RF chain or multiplying by RF devices like of a signal along of dividing (a chain composed powers to take care transmitters,amplications and attenuations, we just add or of receivers, cables, amplifiers, attenuators, measurement instruments, loads, etc.) is that insteadthe losses expressed in decibels. subtract the gains and of dividing or multiplying powers to
take care of amplifications and attenuations, we just add or subtract the gains and the losses expressed in decibels. An example follows:
Transmitter Cable 1 Amplifier Cable 2 Receiver

= = = = = = =

-10 dBm 0 dBm 10 dBm 20 dBm 30 dBm 40 dBm 50 dBm

Using amplification and attenuation factors and expressing the powers in Watts, we obtain the value of the power at the receivers input in this way:
PReceiver 1 1 = PTransmitter " " Amplification " Attenuation Cable1 AttenuationCable2

RF Basics
Using amplication and attenuation factors and expressing the powers in Watts, we obtain the value of the power at the receivers input in this way: Prec=Ptransm x (1/Attcable1) x Amp x(1/Attcable2) If we use dB to express the gains and the losses and dBm to express the powers, the calculation becomes a simple addition: Prec=Ptransm + Losscable1 + Gainamp + Losscable2 This procedure is called Power Budget Calculation

RF Basics
Signals are characterized by frequency. We are interested in signals at 2.4 GHz. At 2.4 GHz, the wavelength is 12.5 cm. We will use dB, so we can use Power Budget Calculation.